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T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

When space shuttle Discovery launched on the STS-114 "Return to Flight" mission in July 2005, stowed inside its Official Flight Kit (OFK) were "2 Metal Ingots" flown for NASA's Space Flight Awareness Office. These two blocks were listed as item 13e in the OFK manifest.

As earlier missions had carried similar metal blocks that were later smelted with other alloy to mint commemorative medals, I made some inquiries at the time of the flight and learned that a design and plan for a new "Manned Flight Awareness" medal did indeed exist.

And then I heard nothing more.

Last night, while browsing the Johnson Space Center's Spaceflight Awareness Office website for STS-117 material, I found their program plan for 2007. Page eight of that PDF includes images of their "Program Products" such as posters, Silver Snoopys, mission flags, decals and coins.

The latter includes this example image:

It's difficult to read but the inscription on the medal appears to read:

What isn't clear is if this is (still) a future product or just an example for illustration purposes. The page also uses an image of a 2006 STS-116 mission flag to represent the flags in general.

Hopefully, SFA will go forth with issuing the STS-114 medal (if they haven't already and it has just gone unnoticed). The most recent medal in the series of flown metal-minted commemoratives was released six years ago for STS-98 and the Destiny ISS lab.

Robert Pearlman

Spotted (and sold for $355) on eBay:

...so the STS-114 Spaceflight Awareness medal exists.

teopze

The medallion pictured belongs to me now. I bought it on eBay about two weeks ago. When I noticed it, I knew it was exceptional.

I don't know how many of them exist [any ideas?], but I do know that this is the most beautiful medallion I have ever seen, and I have seen quite a lot of coins/medallion related to space flight in my live, trust me.

Definitely this is the most detailed and well finished medallion that contains flown material.

It did not come cheap and I must admit I was a little bit worry that it might not be worth the money, but ... I was wrong! This is the most valuable medallion I have, even though it is not the most expensive one. It is simply fantastic. When I showed it to my girlfriend the only word she said was "Wow!".

This particular one was given to David H. by the astronaut Kay Hire. It is slightly larger [44.2mm] than a typical STS coin, the thickens is 20.4mm. I do not think it is made of bronze nor silver not aluminum [that I'm sure of ]. I will take it soon to the Physics Division and do the X-ray spectroscopy. I will try to post the results soon.

Winco

I am the president of Winco International. We have been producing the vast majority of NASA's and the aerospace industry's officially used space pins since the 1980's. We also have produced many space coins as well. The coin you have reported on was in fact produced/minted by Winco (It is called the SFA Team Award Coin).

teopze

Today I was taking pictures of my medallions and thought that some of you would like to have a better picture of this moderately rare STS-114 Team Award medallion. So, here it is:

daveblog

One of these went for $356 on eBay.

liebeek

I think two went for $14.99 sold by the same seller. Two people got a very lucky break. Congrats.

JLR1

Actually three were sold via Buy It Now for $14.99, very quickly which was no surprise.

Then the fourth went for $356, and now there is a fifth one. Could have been had for $299 Buy It Now, but that option wasn't selected.

Curious to know how many he has...

teopze

I met the seller in Washington, DC. He was very nice, he even offered me a trip to NASA HQ, but he was not really aware of the value of the 'treasure' he had, nor was I...

I was initially interested in buying as many as possible [I thought it might be a good business] but by the time I arrive in DC the one listed on eBay made him rethink his position. At the end he was willing to sell to me no more than four. Now, when I think about it I think it might have been the best deal I've ever got, especially considering current price trend...

Anyway, he still had some more when I left, but I can't tell how many, I believe he sold most of them on private auctions...

RADAR

I am the seller of the STS-114 medallion.

I do have more. I will be selling a few (2-3) more. I probably will sell the 2-3 to private buyers. I will stop selling these after that.

MichaelD

Thanks! Being up north now after moving from Houston it is harder to find the items you have listed, especially the Team Award coin.

Just wanted to say thank you.

racso184

Just wondering. Looking at the description and the images here and at eBay, is there a gold and silver colored version of the same medallion? Can anyone here confirm this?

teopze

quote:Originally posted by racso184:...is there a gold and silver colored version of the same medallion?

To my knowledge, there is only one, silver colored version.

racso184

quote:Originally posted by teopze:I do not think it is made of bronze nor silver not aluminum [that I'm sure of].

Seeing the Apollo 11 MFA gold and silver coins, I thought that this could be the case because of the quote in your first post and the gold-tinted images in the other posts here.

Rocket Chris

To my knowledge just around 150 coins were minted just for the "return to flight" launch and assessment teams.

I also bought a medal on eBay. Curious that these Team Award coins are still for sale. Up to now 14 coins were sold just on ebay, and currently two more are offered, with an estimated number of unknown cases on private auctions.

It's conspicuous that so many coins were sold, these coins were never offered to public as we all know.

Gus Man B

I was able to pick one up for under 100.00. Wow that's about $200 off the price they started out.

j0s9

Does anyone know why the price of this coin has dropped so drastically? Right now it's on $110.00 as a buy it now and $95.00 as an auction style. With this, what would be the real economical value of this coin?

cfreeze79

Supply and demand - the basic principle of economics...

j0s9

Maybe I'm wrong (I'm not really good at economics), but isn't it supposed to be that the more quantities sold the less coins available? And in consequence the source is more scarce and difficult to get one, which should make its price to go higher and higher, instead of lower and lower?

I'm so glad that I waited long enough to get my two coins at a very reasonable price compared with the initial prices, but about $30 above the current price.

Do you think that these coins will be considered "special items" or "rare" later?

Robert Pearlman

As these medals are not retail products, nor ever intended to be sold as a mass market collectible, their value will always be subjective.

To someone with no affinity for the space shuttle program, they may be worthless; to someone who was a part of the team who worked to return the space shuttle to flight and who received one of these medals as an award, they may be priceless.

Though we do not know the exact number minted of the STS-114 Team Award, it is a sure bet that there were far fewer than the Apollo 11 Manned Flight Awareness medal of which 200,000 were produced. Today, the latter can command prices of upwards of $100 or more, while simultaneously selling for $30 or less, sometimes within the same venue (i.e. eBay).

In other words, price is a poor indicator of how "special" an item these coins are: their specialness is something for each collector to decide, their comparative rarity a matter of a personal perception.

teopze

To my mind this is a special coin and will again be worth more than the ~100$. The price dropped due to the constant supply. As soon as 'nasa-man' sells all the medallions the price will get higher again. It's just a matter of time. The whole population must be max. 50-75 or so (I am only talking about the coins he has, there are of course more but those will remain with the families of workers and will only occasionally show on eBay). Surely the total population is far far, far less than 200,000, perhaps less than 500? Only Winco can tell.

On the other hand, it is most intriguing how did 'nasa-man' get into possession of such a large quantity. It's a bit suspicious...

To my knowledge, I own the only one such medallion that was actually handed to an employee by an astronaut. All other coins come from 'nasa-man'. By the way, the "original" and his versions are 100% identical.

Robert Pearlman

quote:Originally posted by teopze:All other coins come from 'nasa-man'.

Though the example in the collectSPACE collection was never presented to a team member, it did not originate from eBay or a dealer, and its transfer was authorized by NASA.

STS-114 Team Award - Currently one of the rarest, is this Space Flight Awareness Team Award featuring metal flown onboard the Space shuttle Discovery's flight STS-114 in 26/July - 9/August 2005.

The medal was produced by Winco in limited numbers, with 995 being presented to members of the launch and assessment teams at NASA, who were involved in the mission. These medals were not made available to the general public.

Editor's note: Threads merged.

tnperri

These generally go for $200-250 range. Though I haven't seen one for sale in some time and prices at auctions have been high lately.